panorama and a test

Prototypes & Technology

I tried playing with different "prototypes" like we discussed in class with changing looks of the eye.

changing eyeshadow saturation

different eyebrow styles

changing eyeliner shapes

changing eye contouring

Talking in class made me think of how Snapchat lenses instantly distinguish faces and and can decorate/distort them in real time. I think this kind of technology would be interesting to look into, but is it impossible for me to use? This article/video shows generally how they do it.


https://petapixel.com/2016/06/30/snapchats-powerful-facial-recognition-technology-works/


This exercise is actually making me think a lot about sort of "digital makeup application" and the possibilities of creating artificial makeup entirely on the computer.

progress

Planning Interactive

Opposing the drop in hours proposed in class I thought of a way to one on one sit down with someone and have a conversation. A mock podcast or vlog, where I have guests over my house and we casually unwind and discuss moral dilemmas over a glass of spiked apple cider. This controls the environment from distractions, like a busy hallway and seeing a friend in passing. The topic is, How to justify immoral decisions. What does it take, circumstance wise, for a person to sort through their morals and make a tough decision that may often be the lesser of two evils. When a person is more comfortable I'm assuming they would be more likely to be honest, less concerned with how they will look to others when they make these tough hypothetical choices.

Some questions/scenarios I'm writing:
(Money)

You are a 40 something year old white male with a secure position inside a large company. You are well off and are planning a vacation with your family out of country. You are well liked at work, live less than fifteen minutes away by foot, and have your own office. One day at work, you overhear a group of women complaining about the unfair hours and wages. The next day, you notice that those women are not at work and their work areas are empty of personal items. Upon asking your higher ups, you learn that they were let go but are not given a reason why. A week later, you are approached by your boss. He says that you must fire the women working under you because they are not producing enough work and are costing the company. If you do so, you are looking at a significant pay raise. You doubt you will have your job if you refuse, but can't help but come to the conclusion that these women are being fired for bogus reasons. Do you fire the women and keep your job so you can provide for your family and make sure they never want for anything, or do you stand up for the women in your workplace even if it costs you your financial stability? What if your wife, the love of your life, is terminally ill and needs expensive treatment or there is a likelihood that she may die?

(Money)

You are walking back to your car after a long day at college. Your car is about fifty feet from where you are, but its locked and your keys are in your bag. On your walk you notice a duffel bag stuffed to the brim with what appears to be cash, you can see bills sticking out of the unclosed zipper. Looking around, you see a large man dressed in black walking straight for where the bag is located, but he's about thirty feet away. If you grab the bag and make a run for your car, you think you could make it, even if you have to fish around for your keys. Regardless of what the cash is for, you doubt that its legal. This could mean a big difference for you, an in debt college student surviving off ramen and microwave macaroni. Do you try to steal the possibly already stolen money?

Continuation of the Vectorized Charcoal Rubbings

Still unsure of the usage of the imagery, but interested in what they could be used for. 

Three New Sketches

Based on what we talked about last week, I've honed in on the trans flag and have spent the weekend looking for references so that I can better represent a wide array of different gender expressions and body types. I also left these as simple line work this time since they seem to evoke a more interesting viewing experience.

I thought perhaps if I continue exploring this idea, maybe I could reach out to other students here at Montserrat that identify as transgender that may want to contribute to the project as models to base drawings off of to add a more inclusive element to this project as I'm working with this idea - perhaps I could also talk to them during this about alienation and if it's a feeling they've ever experienced due to the way they identify or present themselves, and then possibly incorporate that as a written element somewhere in my work, either as anonymous excerpts or possibly as quotes or "speech bubbles" that may be things they wish they had heard during those moments when they felt isolated, or things they have heard at some point that made them feel less alienated.
 

Monster Cards & Boxes

At the mention of cards last week, this method of creation stewed in my head. In a final product these cards would be transparent aside from the artwork which will be black line illustrations (possibly screen printed). This will allow potentially infinite layering without loss of line quality. The material that the cards would be made (ex. acetate, cellulose, etc.) of may also allow from dry or wet erase coloring in order to further customize the created beast.
 

Box Doodles

Video series 1

Here I have two examples of visual creations, not exactly what I was planning on creating at first, but for now this is what I am thinking of currently.

My first few attempts at learning adobe premiere... I have created short videos of 10 seconds.

The end result isn't exactly what I want, but I am still working on figuring out the issues. But for now here are some examples of visuals for experimental ambient sound.
 

Chap

Lydia

from discussion of Coral's abstractions

Here is screen grab of the side-by-side view of the two components of Coral's "abstract eye based on green one," from our discussion in Seminar yesterday. We thought about how this abstraction might be the component of a tool that by changing colors in any of the triangles at right, yields an instant preview of what the result would be in the image of the eye at left.

Because a lot of expertise goes into applying the makeup (choice of brush, pressure and direction of application, etc., etc.), the tool might incorporate Coral's "signature" style to makeup, for the use either of herself or (paying?) others.

Relates a little to the makeup sketch pads, and to systematizing makeup. Also, can play a role in interactions with others, around makeup.
 

Blueprints / vectorized scars

While working with the charcoal rubbings I decided to explore the idea that the scars on the walls could be implemented as layouts for the floor designs/plans that would turn the scaring into the walls, columns, and give this building a unique forms.

Scars used for blueprints

Vectorized imagery of the rubbings without the scaring, I leave these here because I think that there is use for them possibly exterior of a building but for now it's not really used in anything I've done so far.

On the history of the floor plan as a means of organizing ritual, labor, habit...

for Jeremy, and others —

Pier Vittorio Aureli
Life, Abstracted: Notes on the Floor Plan

via
@shannonmattern
On the history of the floor plan as a means of organizing ritual, labor, habit, politics + fundamental ontologies; for building an economy and ideology in space

Additions/Abstracting

I actually really liked documenting my eyes so I think I'm going to continue to do it, whether for my project or not.

New Eye

The other day we talked a little about abstracting the eye and "being able to tell if it was an eye". I tried abstracting one of them to see what it would look like.

abstract eye based on green one

emojis and unicode

How the Appetite for Emojis Complicates the Effort to Standardize the World’s Alphabets

Do the volunteers behind Unicode, whose mission is to bring all human languages into the digital sphere, have enough bandwidth to deal with emojis too?

Michael Erard. The New York Times Magazine. October 18, 2017

—

related —

list of emoji faces, and their unicode values

Video Idea?

I've been working on an idea like this for a while. Possibly thinking of either creating a video with these lines gradually moving across the subject with the subject moving too, gif image of the line moving, or many smaller videos with this concept....I do have some ideas for sound to go with this as well...

Exploring an idea

I had this idea occur to me after discussing the importance of the "nation" in alienation last week. It brought to mind some of my own reasons for feeling alienated at times, and then expanded from there into a short series of images that I had a lot of fun working on. I went digital on these so that I could sketch faster as well as open up to new possible mistakes that might change the images for the better, since drawing with a tablet is not my forte. The first one was a bit rough as I got into the swing of things, but I feel like the following three are a pretty solid trilogy of images.

Moving forward, I'd like to improve on the relevance of the speech bubbles - maybe connect them more specifically to each idea that they're representing, as well as push the images more and explore different ways to use the images I've created (such as exploring the simplicity of the line drawings versus the colored sketches). It was nice to have something a little more focused than previous work, since it gave me a goal to keep in mind when sketching each design. Not sure about the gradients, or specifically using geometric shapes in the background - since the flag each design is representing is currently a little hard to make out clearly. I'm not sure if it would come across as a good thing to have the flags each design is representing be a little obscured, or if it would be better to make it more representational.

Each design represents a sexuality or gender, and it's corresponding flag - this one being asexual. This was the first sketch, and I didn't have a solid idea in mind when sketching this, so I feel it doesn't match the other three as well. I included it anyway as a starting point, though I would like to re-create this one now that I have a more established look that I'm going for.

The second design - this one representing the transgender flag.

This one for the pride flag.

Bisexual flag. This was the last I did and I feel it has the best incorporation of relevant text with the image and all that it is meant to represent.

A variation with no color or shading - thought it looked interesting.

Sa$$

So traveling down the social vigilante root we branch off at some weird catty destination. Still unsure how I feel about it, but was interesting enough to post.

Looks more like a meme, or captioned photo.

A bit different from the imagery that I've been bringing in in the past. Trying a different approach to bringing information to the table, as well.

work in progress

Visual Story Telling

My show will be called A Hand In Nature. It will be about the influence of nature and the unspoken interaction you have with it and the effect it has on you. I want to make a visual narrative involving nature placed in temporary ways. The items I’ve gathered are reused and reproduced with some new additional items added to each “frame” (Which is what I’ve decided the individual photographs will be called) to create a series of documented arrangements of nature-esque items. I would like to present blown up representations on a wall accompanied by several still and possibly three dimensional works. I am still working with the idea of language. I want to come across as interactive. Since these are only documented as single photographs or videos, I will create an interesting view point that is different from that of the things in which cannot be recreated. I am experimenting with placement in a 2D way since I am making visual arrangements that tell a visual story. I want the viewer to be slowly more interested in investigating these documented arrangements. I feel as if its almost a performance, this sort of larger than life approach that is only captured through a photograph. These landscape patterns I am creating tell a visual story to be encapsulated in my world of the unseen.

Things I think relate


:

Wandering In Sound w.i.p.

For my project I am writing a series of music with plans of creating visuals to go along with the music. My work currently is still in the early phases of writing and figuring out new compositions with each passing day. I want to play around with a topic I have been researching lately which is synesthesia to show the colors that are found in music. I have ideas of making videos involving colors of the synesthesia chart, and possibly pairing that with abstracted animations to give a visual to the songs. Moving forward I want to create music that dabbles in experimental, classical, and electronic genres; as well as trying many forms of visual exploration.
 

Orange transformation studies